The App Development Learning Curve

Those readers who read my earlier posts know that I began developing an app nearly a year ago. I had hired a local company called Zenuity. They had an impressive office in a building about ten minutes from my home. The first person I met was Earl Mincer. He was the lead tech man of the company and it's primary salesman for convincing one that Zenuity can get the job done. I told him about my app idea and he said his company could easily handle the job. He assured me that his creative staff was excellent. A mock-up was made before we proceeded further. Once that was done, we had a meeting so that my husband, who is in the high tech industry, could ask Earl questions relevant to the technology that would be used. My husband felt good that Earl knew what he was talking about. We then agreed on the cost and terms of the contract. I was excited that my app idea would soon come to fruition. My excitement was premature. The app should have been completed by December. By December only a couple of drawings had been done. Excuses were made up by Allison, the project manager, as to why nothing was moving. After numerous frustrating phone calls and emails, I requested a new project manager. She was replaced by Kitty V'Marie. Kitty was also the office manager. Kitty seemed to have a better handle on the inner workings as they related to my app, but she was also evasive when I asked about the progress of the app. By January, my patience was beginning to run out. The only portion of the app the company to had to show for its efforts were a few simple drawings. By February, I had lost complete confidence in the company's abilities to produce an app. I asked to meet with the heads of the company. Joining the meeting was the company's owner, Joel Kellman, Kitty and Earl. I told Joel that it did not seem like the company was up to the task of producing an app of my kind. Joel asked a lot of questions of Kitty, Earl and me. He said he was sure that the progress of the app would now pick up. Come April, nothing had changed. I called another meeting to tell them that I was ready to part ways with them. Joel insinuated that my app had morphed into something more complicated and costly. He hinted around for more money. I did not bite. I told him that I was terminating our relationship and requested a full refund of the monies. Joel said that he needed to talk the accountant and his lawyer. A week later the company was out of business. Did I lose my money? Nearly, but I got lucky. I had paid for the deposit with a credit card. The credit card company issued me a full refund after performing an investigation.

How does one avoid getting caught in a scam of this kind?

1. First, I would google the company's name and see what comes up. When I started to have suspicions about the company,  I googled Joel Kellman and Earl Mincer. I found numerous complaints about them and the other diverse companies they had set up in the area.

2. I would ask to see apps the company had completed. This way you will be able to see the quality of their work and if their skills are in line with what you will need.

3. Get in touch with someone who had an app developed by the company. Ask that person about their experiences with the app developer.

4. Schedule a meeting with the person who will be working on your app. This does not mean the project manager. This means the person who will be working on the app directly. The conversation with this person may help you decide if this is someone you want to work with.

5. Ask the person for a project timeline. How long will it take to complete the app?

6. Discuss the responsibilities that you will each have in getting your app completed and into the app store.

7. I had worked out a payment schedule with Earl, but my error was giving too much money at the outset. I would work out a payment schedule that broke payments down into smaller bits. For instance, the first payment would be for seeing the completed drawings of the characters. This way if something goes wrong you've laid out less money. Also, the company has a greater incentive for moving the project along.

8. Set up a weekly schedule to go over any questions you or the developer may have. These meetings should also give you an idea of where the developer is in the process.

Great Middle and High School Dictionary Apps

The Enchanted Dictionary: Apps for our profession continue to get better and better. The Enchanted Dictionary apps for 4-6^th and 7-12^th grades are proof of how far app developers have come in producing apps that utilize the wonders of the iPad as they teach and challenge children. These two creative apps are not dictionaries in the Webster sense. Words are not looked up as much as they are taught. The teaching of word definitions occurs in categories: English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. Within these general categories are subcategories that offer definitions of terms specific to the subcategory. For instance, in the category of Mathematics are the subcategories of charts and graphs, geometry, measurement, number theory, probability and statistics and time. Tap on a subcategory and a list of words germane to that category appear to the right along with their definition.  The fun way to utilize the apps is to tap on the Play! button on the upper left of the screen. But first, one has to select the words that will appear during play. One can choose Select All or Select None. Select None allows one to individually choose the words for play. Once one enters Play! an open book appears. The page on the right has the word that needs to be defined. The page on the left has a bunch of scrambled words that float around (hence enchanted). The student needs to arrange the floating words in correct order on the right so as to complete the definition of the word. One can drag or flick the words to the right. A word will move and stay to the right only if it is the correct word in the sequence of words needed to complete the definition. If the incorrect word is selected, it will float back to the left. Granted, students can guess around and drag/flick a word until it sticks and then randomly pick another word, thus avoiding thinking about the definition. Even so, at the point when all the words appear in correct order, the word is defined. Hopefully, the guessing student will read the definition, thus making it a learning experience anyhow. One has the option of adding or editing definitions, categories, or subcategories by simply tapping on the "Edit" button at the top of the screen.

I like the layout of the categories and definitions on the screen. The categories and defined words are written in bold black font. The definitions are written in gray beneath the words.

There is no scoring feature or database for keeping track of the progress of students. I asked the app's developer Marg Griffin about this. She replied, "We didn't add data collection to Enchanted Dictionary because we see it primarily as an intervention method to help students become more aware of how they learn vocabulary as well as how definitions are phrased. Because of that, how long it takes them to complete a definition or how many errors they make is less relevant than how much they improve in being able to use the targeted vocabulary in speaking or writing. That is the sort of data I track when I use it with my students." Fair enough. The only problem is that school speech pathologists must collect data, no matter how senseless that task is. Perhaps a simple scoring feature might be included in an upgrade to help out our school colleagues.

I would recommend these apps to middle and high school teachers as well as speech pathologists. Priced at $1.99, they are a real bargain.

Ages: children in 4th-6th and 7th-12th grades
Ratings: ++++1/2

Developer website: Goldencommunicationsllc.com
Cost: $1.99 each

Apps and EBP

When I review apps, my years of experience play a significant role in my assessments of the usefulness of apps. I rarely base my reviews on research to determine if the app is evidence based.  This is because research is time consuming and the reviews of apps take a considerable amount of my time. However, I do check suspicious claims. A claim will strike me as suspicious if I suspect that the citation of research has been done to sell the app. Those of you who have read my earlier posts know that I have shown where a claim of an app being based on research is not supported by the research cited.

In this month's ASHA Leader, Lara Wakefield and Teresa Shaber, in their article, "APP-titude: Use the Evidence to Choose a Treatment App," noted, "App developers' descriptions and customers' reviews, however, may lack discussions of evidence and contain inherent biases. SLPs who use only this information may be relying solely on opinions and advertisements to make decisions."  Wakefield and Shaber then discuss a five step process for determining if an app is evidence based. These steps are: 
Step 1: Frame your clinical question using PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome).
Step 2: Find the evidence.
Step 3: Assess the evidence.
Step 4: Search the app store and consult the evidence.
Step 5: Make a clinical decision and integrate the different types of evidence to determine your choices.

It is quite easy to do the research. Some app developers cite research in their app descriptions. Follow their lead and make sure the research does support the developers’ claims. ASHA has a database of thousands of articles. Do a search using a few key words and a screen will appear with various articles to peruse.

If one wants to be certain that a particular app meets evidence based standards, one needs to go that extra mile.

Category Apps

Category Carousel: This app was developed by speech pathologist Lois Kam Heymann. The app offers nine general categories: transportation, animals, clothing, food, occupations, household, summer, winter and instruments. There are subcategories within animals (birds, bugs, farm, water, jungle, forest), transportation (land, water, sky), clothing (body, head, feet), food (breakfast, desserts, drinks, meat, fruit, vegetables), and household (cleaning, furniture, toys, tools, bathroom, kitchen). The screen for each category presents 12 photographs of items within the category selected. The child needs to drag each of the pictures into the category icon at the top of the screen. Each picture touched is named and when it is dragged into the icon two things happen: the number of items placed into the icon are counted and shown with a number and there is verbal praise. I like the large variety of items presented for some categories. For the categories with many pictures, each time a picture is placed in the icon, new picture appears on the screen so that there are always 12 pictures from which to select until the picture limit is reached. Some categories, such as winter, have only 12 pictures. One has the option of rotating the pictures on the screen by tapping the circular arrows at the bottom.

Although the focus of this app is categories there really is no challenge for the child in this respect. This is because the child does not need to determine the category nor sort pictures according to their categories. The challenge only occurs when the child needs to sort pictures into their subcategories. This app, however, is a good choice for vocabulary learning.

Ages: 3-8
Ratings: +++
Developer website: pocketslp.com
Cost: $9.99

Clean Up Category Sorting: This app focuses on three catgories---foods, toys, and clothing. An item appears on the screen. It is named and the  narrator asks, “Where does/do the _____go?” The child plays the game by dragging the  item into either a shopping cart, toy bin, or clothes closet at the bottom of the screen. This limits the learning of categories to three: food, toys, and clothes. A correct answer elicits a positive narrator response such as “Yah,” “Way to Go,” or clapping accompanied by a fleeting visual reward of either thumbs up, blue ribbon, star, confetti, or balloons. After all the items have been placed, a score screen shows the percentage correct for the session. There is no database for storing the scores of the children who use the app. This app can also be used for vocabulary building.

Lacking any creative elements, this app is basic and bland. The items that appear on the screen are photos common to the paper materials that have been around for years.

Ages: 2-4
Ratings: +
Developer website: Difflearn.com
Cost: $1.99

Families 1 and Families 2: My First Apps consistently puts out good apps for the 2-5 year set.  These apps are similar in layout to the association apps I reviewed last November. There is a central box with seven pictures surrounding it. In Families 1 and 2, the center box has three items in it of a particular subcategory. Surrounding the box are seven pictures. The child has to find the picture that fits the subcategory presented in the box. For example, the screen may show different pictures of foods. The pictures in the center may be fruits. The child has to find and drag a fruit into the box. The next screen may be drinks. Again, the child has to scan the foods and drag the picture of the drink into the box. The types of drinks are varied so that the child is simply not matching pictures. 

The drawn pictures are clear and pleasant. I like the variety of general categories as well as the inclusion of the higher level concept of subcategory learning. There is also a lot of vocabulary to enhance the learning process. The pictures in Family 1 are more visually similar, making this app easier than Families 2

Ages: 2-5 for Families 1; 3-5 for Families 2
Ratings: +++
Developer website: myfirstapp.com
Cost: Free for two categories for each of the apps. One can upgrade to eight groups for $.99.

What Does Not Belong: One can tell by its name that this app takes a different approach to category learning. I downloaded the first level which is free. Five photographs pop up on the screen. Four fit the same category and one does not. The child needs to drag the one that does not fit in the category into the trash can at the bottom of the screen. As a vocabulary task the child can name each of the pictures. The pictures are not named when they are tapped. The child can also explain why the one picture does not belong in the group. When all the pictures in the level have been correctly placed in the trash, a screen with additional levels appears. I did not purchase the other nine levels so I cannot comment on whether or not the tasks become more challengin. I found the photographs to be mediocre. Some were images of amateurish looking ceramic animals.

Ages: 3-5
Ratings: +
Developer website: brain-go.com
Cost: Free for the first level; $1.99 for the nine additional levels.

Communication Assist Apps

When the iPad first came out, I thought that this device was a godsend for people whose communication skills were so impaired that without assistance they were locked into silence or were wholly reliant on someone else to communicate for them.  For those in that situation, the iPad has the potential to offer them a level of communication independence they may not yet have known.

I downloaded seven AAC apps to review. 

Touch Voice: The user of this app can select a screen with prewritten words and phrases or a screen to type in a word or phrase of one’s choice. The former is accessed by tapping the Words button and the latter by tapping the Letters button. The words and phrases are written on buttons and arranged in keyboard like fashion. There are 142 phrase options, from which to select, 28-30 per screen shown over five screens.  To find a word or phrase, one scrolls through the screens until one finds what one wishes to communicate. They are grouped somewhat categorically in that, for example, words for grooming are near one another. Tap on the button and the same word or phrase appears in a bar at the top of the screen. Below the bar is a Speak button. Tap on it and the word or phrase in the bar is spoken. To compose one’s own message, one taps Letters to access a touch keyboard. Whatever is typed appears on the bar at the top. Tap Speak to have the phrase spoken. There are Yes and No buttons at the bottom of the screen for quick replies.

This app uses e-speak, a computer-synthesized speech engine. As such, the speech is robotic and, in my opinion, unpleasant. The clarity is fair. Sometimes, I could not decide if the robot was American, British, Australian or South African. Any of them is a pleasant accent when spoken by a human but still annoying in the robotic e-speak.

The app developer states that the app “may be able to help” are those who have brain cancer, amytropic lateral sclerosis, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, ataxia as well as those who have had their larynx removed, stroke, or traumatic brain injury. As an AAC device, this app does the job albeit in a sterile fashion. For those individuals, whose vision and reading my be impacted by their illness, the presentation of the words and phrases may make finding the correct word or phrase a challenge.

Ages: Adults for whom reading is not a challenge

Ratings: ++
Developer website: Touch-voice.com
Cost: $19.99

Sono Flex Lite: This app is similar to Touch Voice in that it presents words and phrases in a keyboard layout and both have a keyboard option to type in what one wishes to communicate. But that is where the similarities end. The keys on Sono Flex have stick figures and pictures with the word or phrase written above them.  I like the pictures. They are fun, lighthearted and make the app. Also, the voices, although synthesized, are pleasant and easy to understand. The top of the Sono Flex screens are divided into four compartments: History, Quick Phrases, a box where the selected words or phrase appears with its picture, Keyboard and a Home button that also functions as a Select Context button. Tap on History and the screen changes to show what words and phrases were used in the last 30 minutes, today, and earlier. Each of these time periods has its own box at the top of the screen. Once simply needs to tap on the time period to see the phrases used. One has the option of deleting the phrases on in History. Tap on Quick Phrases and the screen moves to keys containing common phrases. The Home screen has keys for basic words I, be, do, like, not, how, it, can , have, want, to, and what. Below these keys are buttons for the categories: pronouns, verbs, describe, things, body and clothing, food and eating, people, time, places, short words, question, and write phrases. Tap on any of these buttons to see the relevant vocabulary. On the far right are context buttons. One selects four out of eight contexts (about me, lunch, art, math, circle time, Mr. Potato Head, I spy and playground) to appear on the Home screen. Tap on the context and relevant vocabulary is shown.

Even though some of the content of this app is geared towards children,  I think adults will find the app appealing. There is a lot of content pushed into this lite version. For those needing more, there is a non-lite version of this app, with 11,000 symbols.

Ages: 5 to adult
Ratings: ++++
Developer website: www.tobii.com
Cost: Free for the lite version, $99.99 for the non-lite version

Verbally: Similar to Touch Voice, this app contains letters, words and phrases in written form only. One can select from lists of words and phrases at the top of the screen or type in one’s own communication on the touch keyboard at the lower part of the screen. In the middle of the screen, on the left, is a white blank window where the desired word(s) print after being selected or typed. On the right are four gray boxes.  After the first letter is printed in the white box, four possible word choices appear in the gray boxes; if a word is typed or selected, four choices for the next word appear in the gray areas. If none are desired, one can type in the first letter of the next word to see choices that start with that letter. Each subsequent letter typed refines the choices that appear. On the keyboard is a Speak button that says the word(s) appearing in the white window. Once that word or phrase is spoken, it is erased. If one wishes the app to repeat what was just said, one taps on the Repeat key (below the Speak button). Not only is the word(s) repeated, it also reappears, for a second or two, in written form in a black box. One has the option of having each word spoken as it is printed by tapping on the Speak Each Word button. The voice is robotic and speaks a little too rapidly but is intelligible.

Ages: 8 to adult
Ratings: +++
Developer website: www. verballyapp.com
Cost: Free. There is an upgraded version for $99.99 that I have not tried. According to the developer, the upgrade allows one to save phrases and conversation history, has an email connect option and the choice of  voices----male, female or child.

I downloaded four more AAC apps that I will just mention briefly. They are geared for children and merit the “meh” factor (let’s say one +). The resolution of their displays is not great and the vocabulary they offer is meager. But they are free.

Pics Aloud Lite (imjsoftware.com/picsaloud), Tap to Talk (taptotalk.com), ComApp  and My Voice Free (in Hebrew): These apps show pictures that, when tapped, elicit a human voice saying either the word or using the word in a phrase such as, “May I have a drink, please?” or “I am tired.” Pics Aloud, ComApp and Tap to Talk offer upgraded versions that I did not purchase. The free version of Tap to Talk became unusable after I tapped on the icon for more information. The new screen offered purchasing options or a visit to their website for more sample content but first one needs to type in one’s name and email address.

An App Dedicated to Social Skills, Conversation and More

Conversation Coach: A few weeks ago I was getting ready to review this app. Here’s what I had written at the time: “It took me a fairly long time to learn to all the options available. But, that may be electronically challenged me. Even though the app’s Help section does a good job explaining how to use the app and make changes, I found myself going back and forth when trying to make changes.” Before posting my review, I contacted the developer, Jan Hopkins at Silver Lining Media, to ask her a few questions. She told me they were in the process of updating the app. I decided to wait for the updates. Glad I did. The updated app now has an "Intro" that offers a clearer road map of the workings of the app. My feelings of electronic inadequacy have diminished, but just by a bit.

This app has many facets to it within three general modes of use: talk, tell and practice. Talk mode focuses on the give and take of conversation. One person waits until the other has spoken before responding. Then it is the second person’s turn to wait while the other person responds. Visual assistance for turn-taking is in the form of a ball. The person who has the ball talks while the person without the ball waits. A picture of an icon saying, “Sh,” is an additional visual cue to wait one’s turn. Tell mode turns the app into a communication device, allowing the user to make requests and comments.  A very nice feature in this mode is that various options demonstrate the sequence of events for everyday tasks such as dressing, getting ready for school, the child’s day at school and more. In practice mode, the user practices two-way conversations, with the iPad functioning as the other person. Questions are randomly asked by the device and the user is given response choices.

This app is complex on many levels. There is a learning curve for navigating the app before it can be used with clients. The easy part is deciding the mode of use. Once that is done one needs to select the category of conversation from an extensive list. For instance, will the child work on greetings, feelings, clothing, or holidays? One can personalize the program further by adding one’s own pictures, recordings, and text.  I found this part challenging. Until I got used to using Editor, I found myself writing down the editing sequence explained in Conversation Setup. I thought I had to remember if I were editing for the Tell or Talk mode if I wished to challenge my brain or make my life easier and write the mode down. When I thought that there must be an easier way, I looked back at the screen and noticed that the information was right there at the top of the screen. Now the challenge was to remember what I had changed as I exited Edit and went to Play mode to see if I had edited correctly. Success! I think the challenge of recalling my edits had to more to do with the randomness of my editing rather than the complexity of the editing. I edited the recording for one picture rather than a set of pictures and I was not making changes for a particular child.

I like the clarity and rate of the narration. For readers, the text is clear. Color and black and white photographs are the visuals. Their quality is good. In Player Setup one can select specific conversations to display, whether or not the user is a reader, sound or no sound and the lag time for the computer’s turn.

As I worked on getting to know this app, I thought about its target population. The first group that came to mind was children who had difficulty with turn-taking or staying focused while waiting one’s turn. The app can also be used by an individual who needs a communication device. I can see this app getting a lot of use in a class for children with multiple handicaps. Autistic children and others challenged by conversational tasks are groups for this app. Children with organizational and executive functioning challenges may find the way that the app presents the sequencing of daily events helpful. Parents of children, whose communication skills are severely limited, will find many ways to use the app.

Have any of you used this app? I would appreciate hearing your opinions and will post them to share with others.

Ages: 4+
Ratings: ++++1/2
Developer website: Silverliningmedia.com
Cost: $49.99 for the full version; lite version is $1.99 which includes full access to the editors for the first 24 hours.

A Terrific Receptive Concepts and Directions App

Auditory Workout: This app, developed by Beata Klarowska, M.S. CCC-SLP, is one of the best I have seen for receptive language.  She has clearly given a lot of thought to all aspects of app usage for professional use.

The app strategically works on prepositions, colors, size, quantity, spatial, and temporal concepts in a following directions format within four sections in ascending order of complexity: Basic Concepts, Quantitative and Spatial, Temporal, and Conditional Directions. One can start a student in the section and level of one's choice. The instructions for each screen are clearly narrated. Once the narrator finishes the instruction the child taps on one of the pictures. (I appreciated the narrator’s rate of speech and the time given for the child to process the instruction.) Each screen has five pictures that are clear and uncluttered. Now here is an example of a well-thought out app. When the instruction is being given, the pictures choices are framed individually and the screen is slightly opaque. At this point, the child who taps the screen does so in vain. Nothing happens. The child needs to wait until the complete instruction is given. At that point, the frames disappear and the picture choices are seen in their full clarity. There is a Repeat button on the bottom of each screen.  The top of each screen clearly indicates the type of direction, the level being worked on, the name of the child and the direction (Example: "Follow directions with concept before in the beginning of the sentence + size + object"). The child can see basketballs accumulate for each correct answer. As the child sees his progress in basketballs, the adult will see the child's level of accuracy, in percentages. Later, one can review each child's scores for each level in the database.

The Settings screen allows one to select a number of features such as automatic paging, sound indication for a correct or incorrect choice, and turn on/off the the answer. If one turns off automatic paging a Go button needs to be tapped after the child has tapped on his answer. A third button, Next Page, appears at the bottom of each screen after the child's response has been determined to be correct or incorrect. This button allows the adult to to proceed to the next page. The app allows for there to be multiple users during a session by changing the User Alternate Count.

The app offers two reward game options: basketball and catch ball. In Settings, one can determine at what point the game reward appears. The app recommends basketball for older children and catch ball for the younger crowd. I tried both. I found the basketball game to be awkward. The area of play is narrow; the net and backboard are bordered by walls to the left and right. One needs to hit the walls on precise points in order for the ball to drop into the net. Otherwise the ball drops frustratingly down to the floor. Catch ball was easier and thus more rewarding. In catch ball, one moves a box around the screen and catches as many balls as possible as they enter the basketball court. The child can view his score on the screen’s backboard for each game.

For those of us who find working on following directions and concept learning a tedious affair, an app, such as this, is what makes the iPad an incredible tool and the task enjoyable.

Ages: 4-8 years (The developer designates the age range for this app to be four to ten.); adults who are aphasic or for those who may be mentally declining.
Ratings: ++++1/2
Developer website: Virtualspeechcenter.com
Cost: $19.99